The supermarket typically comprises meat, fresh produce, dairy, and baked goods departments along with
shelf space reserved for canned and packaged goods as well as for
various nonfood items such as household cleaners, pharmacy products, and pet supplies. Most supermarkets also
sell a variety of other household products that are consumed
regularly, such as alcohol (where permitted), household
cleaning products, medicine, clothes, and some sell a much wider range of
nonfood products.

The traditional suburban supermarket occupies a large amount of
floor space, usually on a single level, and is situated near a
residential area in order to be convenient to consumers. Its basic
appeal is the availability of a broad selection of goods under a
single roof at relatively low prices. Other advantages include ease
of parking and, frequently, the convenience of shopping hours that
extend far into the evening or even 24 hours a day. Supermarkets
usually make massive outlays of newspaper and other advertising and
often present elaborate in-store displays of products. The stores
often are part of a corporate chain that owns or controls (sometimes by
franchise) other
supermarkets located nearby — even transnationally — thus
increasing opportunities for economies of
scale.

Supermarkets usually offer products at low prices by reducing
their economic margins.
Certain products (typically staple foods such as
bread, milk and sugar)
are occasionally sold as loss leaders, that is, with negative profit margins. To
maintain a profit, supermarkets attempt to
make up for the lower margins by a higher overall volume of sales,
and with the sale of higher-margin items. Customers usually shop by
placing their selected merchandise into shopping carts (trolleys) or baskets
(self-service) and pay for the merchandise at the check-out. At
present, many supermarket chains are attempting to further reduce
labor costs by shifting to self-service
check-out machines, where a single employee can oversee a group
of four or five machines at once, assisting multiple customers at a
time.

Contents

History

A supermarket in Sweden in 1941

In the early days of retailing, all products generally were
fetched by an assistant from shelves behind the merchant's counter
while customers waited in front of the counter and indicated the
items they wanted. Also, most foods and merchandise did not come in
individually wrapped consumer-sized packages, so an assistant had
to measure out and wrap the precise amount desired by the consumer.
These practices were by nature very labor-intensive and therefore also
quite expensive. The shopping process was slow, as the number of
customers who could be attended to at one time was limited by the
number of clerks employed in the store.

Other established American grocery chains in the 1930s, such as
Kroger and Safeway, at first
resisted Cullen's idea, but eventually were forced to build their
own supermarkets as the economy sank into the Great
Depression and consumers became price-sensitive at a level
never experienced before.[7] Kroger
took the idea one step further and pioneered the first supermarket
surrounded on all four sides by a parking lot.

Supermarkets proliferated across Canada and the United States
with the growth of suburban
development after World War II. Most North American
supermarkets are located in suburban strip malls as an anchor store along with
other, smaller retailers. They are generally regional rather than
national in their company branding. Kroger is perhaps the most nationally
oriented supermarket chain in the United States but it has
preserved most of its regional brands, including Ralphs, City Market and King Soopers.

In Canada the largest such chain is Loblaw, which operates stores under a
variety of regional names, including Fortinos, Zehrs and the largest Loblaws (named after the company itself). Sobeys is Canada's second largest
supermarket with locations across the country, operating under many
banners (Sobeys IGA in Quebec).

In the 1950s supermarkets frequently issued trading stamps as
incentives to customers. Today, most chains issue store-specific
"membership cards," "club cards," or "loyalty cards". These
typically enable the card holder to receive special members-only
discounts on certain items when the credit card-like device is
scanned at check-out.

Traditional supermarkets in many countries face intense
competition from discount
retailers such as Wal-Mart, Asda in the UK, and Zellers in Canada, which typically are non-union and operate with
better buying power. Other competition exists from warehouse clubs such as Costco that offer savings to customers buying in
bulk quantities. Superstores, such as those operated by
Wal-Mart and Asda, often offer a wide range of goods and services
in addition to foods. The proliferation of such warehouse and
superstores has contributed to the continuing disappearance of
smaller, local grocery stores, increased dependence on the automobile, suburban
sprawl because of the necessity for large floorplates, and
increased vehicular traffic and air pollution. Some critics
consider the chains' common practice of selling loss leaders to be
anti-competitive. They are also wary of the negotiating power that
large, often multinational, retailers have
with suppliers around the world.

In some countries, the range of supermarket merchandise is more
strictly focused on food products, although the range of goods for
sale is expanding in many locations as typical store sizes continue
to increase globally.

Typical store
architecture

Most supermarkets are similar in design and layout due to trends
in marketing. Fresh produce tends to be located
near the entrance of the store. Milk, bread, and other essential staple items are
usually situated toward the rear of the store and in other
out-of-the-way places, purposely done to maximize the customer's
time spent in the store, strolling past other items and
capitalizing on impulse buying. The front of the store, or
"front end'" is the area where point of sale machines or cash registers
are usually located. Many retailers also have implemented self-checkout devices in an attempt to
reduce labor costs.

Criticisms

Supermarkets, in general, also tend to narrow the choices of
fruits and vegetables by stocking only varieties with long storage
lives, thus leading to medium-term extinction of the cultivation of other
varieties.

In the United
States, major-brand supermarkets often demand slotting fees from
suppliers in exchange for premium shelf space and/or better
positioning (such as at eye-level, on the checkout aisle or at a
shelf's "end cap"). This extra supplier cost (up to $30,000 per
brand for a chain for each individual SKU) may be reflected in the cost of
the products offered. Some critics have questioned the ethical and
legal propriety of slotting fee payments and their effect on
smaller suppliers [1][2][3].

In Britain
supermarkets have been accused of squeezing prices to farmers,
forcing small shops out of business, and often favouring imports
over British produce. [4]

Supermarkets can generally retail at lower prices than
traditional corner shops and markets due to higher volume. This has
led to small businesses losing customers and closing in many areas,
which can be seen as an adverse effect on the local infrastructure.
In 2000, the Finnish government
drafted the new shopping hours law in such a way, that
shops with a sub-supermarket floor area (<400m2) have
year-around Sunday opening rights, while supermarkets are permitted
to stay open on Sundays only during the summer and mid-winter
months.

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Supermarkets are large grocery stores that sell a large variety of fresh and packaged food and other consumer or household products. Supermarkets are divided into sections, such as dairy, produce (fruits and vegetables), meat, packaged goods, cleaning supplies, and personal hygiene items. The term "supermarket" usually refers to a larger store than the term "grocery store."